Tuesday, May 27, 2008

The Physics of Falling Contacts

This is a poem I wrote after I almost lost a contact lens.

The Physics of Falling Contacts

The common laws of physics are suspended for a bit,Some mornings when I get up and at the mirror sit.I take a piece of plastic: small concave and blue,And stick it on my eyeball -- if my aim is true.Oftentimes I miss my mark and down the contact goes,Or sideways, backwards, even up - why that is no one knows.Shrodinger his kitty, has got nothing on these things,For once they come out of their box, only trouble do they bring.With the contact lens there's only one true state of being,That's "aggravation," man, but it's worth it for my seeing.

Note: the Schrodinger's Cat reference is about this theoretical quantum mechanics experiment where there is a cat in a box and a vial of poison which is released or not by a radioactive particle decaying. Then there is something about the cat's existing as both a live cat and a dead cat until it is actually observed, at which time its state of being is fixed, or at least it is affected by the act of being observed. I probably got it wrong but it fit into the poem nicely I thought.

About Me

I'm a 30-something writer/editor, currently living in Colorado. Here are some of my adventures, coming from the perspective an American who lived in China, between 1994-1999.
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